Charleston Gazette-Mail – Sitting in a Charleston hotel room Thursday afternoon just before a planning meeting for the United Mine Workers of America’s re-creation of the march on Blair Mountain to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the largest labor uprising in U.S. history, UMWA spokesman Phil Smith was looking not back but ahead. Read the full article.
“It’s critical, frankly, not just for the survival of unions, but it’s critical for the survival of the middle class in this country that we pass the PRO Act,” Smith said.
Smith was among the panelists making connections between the Battle of Blair Mountain and what they argued was an urgent need to reverse the country’s decline in unions during a webinar hosted by ReImagine Appalachia, a coalition of environmental and community organizations throughout the region.
